The DeSoto Democrat, a walking definition of gerontocracy (who seems both younger and older than she actually is, I'll admit), in that way as well as in the wasted ConservaDem occupancy of a Texas house seat that should be more liberal, parallels California Senator Dianne Feinstein on both counts.
Fortunately, Tom Craddick "Democrat" Giddings is finally retiring.
In addition to her staying in Texas a decade-plus ago, rather than joining most fellow Dems in the Texas Legislature in fleeing to Oklahoma to block Craddick's illicit-ish mid-decade redistricting plans, she stayed in Austin. Per Wikipedia, her "arrest" in Austin was almost certainly showbiz only.
Beyond that, I've written more than once about her blank checks for big biz in general, and anti-environmentalism in particular. Dems should — and need to — do better with this safe seat rather than continuing to waste it.
They haven't to this point, though; she wasn't primaried for more than a decade since her first election, and only twice after.
Per another recent post, she's the biggest waste of Democratic officeholder space in south Dallas and the south burbs this side of Eddie Bernice Johnson. And I know this about both of them from having spent most of the previous decade in the south Dallas suburbs and never totally taken my eye off the area since then.
I'm not sure who's got a the best shot at replacing her. But, having beaten a federal rap, I suspect that Our Man Downtown, John Wiley Price, might try to put a thumb on the scale. Tennell Atkins? Would he leave the Dallas City Council? Much of his district is in that lege district. Part of Dwaine Caraway's district goes there, too, but I can't see him leaving the mayor pro tem spot. On the other hand, him holding that seat would give him kind of a leg up on JWP.
On the other side of the aisle, I KNOW that Casey Littlejohn (who obviously misread my word "traitor" on Twitter when I retweeted the Snooze's story, and didn't look at my account too closely) has zero chance of winning. A Republican in general has little shot, and one with a cutout website who appears aligned with the Dan Patrick wing (and more and more, the Greg Abbott wing) of the state GOP, has zero chance.
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Update: DeSoto Mayor Carl Sherman is among four Dems to file, and I would guess he has the best shot, followed by Dallas businesswoman Victoria Walton. No Republican is in the race.
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